Early 20th Century - The Era of Calculators and the Pickering Harem
The calculator job in astronomy corresponds to the execution of mathematical operations following a set of predefined fixed rules. Obtaining results in astronomy at this time often requires a lot of tedious calculations. Hence the appearance of teams of calculators, whose tasks are separated to perform calculations on the same subject in parallel.
This function corresponded to an intermediate position for most calculators while waiting to obtain a better position within their institution.
Most scientific fields were still closed and selective towards women and astronomy was no exception to this rule. The profession of the calculator was also closed to women until the day when the idea came to the American astronomer Edward Charles Pickering to do otherwise, certainly with questionable objectives.
Edward Pickering, director of the Harvard University Observatory from 1877 to 1919, has a project on star characterization and classification. Disappointed by the poor results of his male collaborators, Pickering once declared that even his maid would do a better job. He later decided to go from words to deeds and hired Williamina Fleming who was indeed his maid at the time as a calculator.
Williamina Fleming (1857 - 1911) was born in Dundee, Scotland, where he studied and began teaching through the Pupil Teacher program. Married to accountant James Orr Fleming in 1877, they moved to the United States but she was abandoned by her husband with her son and in need of money, is hired as a maid by Edward Fleming who will later embark on his project of classification of stars after having spotted his talents. His contributions to this project are numerous: classification of more than 10,000 stars, the discovery of 59 nebulae, more than 310 variable stars, and 10 Novæ, publication in 1907 of a list of 222 variable stars.
Fleming was the first member of a large group (more than 80 members) of ‘calculator’ women called the Harvard Calculators (or Pickering Harem) hired by Edward Pickering during the same period. The reasons for this choice were mainly economic since women working as astronomers for the Harvard Observatory were paid much less than men (less than university secretaries). Some of them were even volunteers, such as Anna Winlock who made calculations on the trajectory of asteroids Eros and Ocllo.
Other factors, related to the sociological phenomenon called the “Harem Effect” are also considered in the case of Harvard Calculators, such as the supposed absence of potential conflicts within a female team, because women would be less likely to compete than men.
Thanks to the donation of Henry Draper’s widowed Mary Anna Draper to the observatory in 1886, Pickering was able to hire more calculators and publish the first Henry Draper Catalogue in 1890. He then hired other calculators to develop and refine this classification and some of them, such as Annie Jump Cannon, stood out in particular.
Born in Dover, Delaware, Annie Jump Cannon (1863 - 1941) was encouraged by her parents (Senator Wilson Lee Cannon and Mary Elizabeth Jump Cannon) to study astronomy, mathematics, and physics. She studied at Wellesley College and graduated in 1884. After a career as a teacher and professional photographer in Delaware, she decided to reorient herself because she lost her sense of hearing because of scarlet fever. Hired by physicist Sarah Frances Whiting with whom she had studied at Wellesley College she became a junior teacher and studied mathematics and then joined Radcliffe College as a special student, close to Harvard and thus meets Edward Pickering then director of the Harvard observatory who recruits her in a team of calculators.
Annie Jump Cannon is part of a team tasked with completing Henry Draper’s star catalog and mapping the sky. Based on the work of her colleagues Williamina Fleming and Antonia Maury, she developed a classification system that is always used to designate the spectral types of stars. In 1901 she published the description of 1122 of the brightest stars, after simplifying Fleming’s classification, retaining only certain classes of stars. Between 1911 and 1915 it ranked a very large number of stars (with a rhythm of about 5000 stars per month), and is recognized worldwide as an expert in star classification.
She served as secretary of the American Astronomical Society from 1912 to 1919, during which time she was elected honorary member of the Royal Astronomical Society of London (1914).
The Henry Draper catalog, which Jump and her colleagues worked on for several years, was published between 1918 and 1924. She directed its publication after the death of Edward Pickering in 1919.
Annie Jump Cannon is the first woman to become a doctor of astronomy at the University of Groningen (in 1921) and receives many distinctions in her career as an astronomer: election among the twelve most important living American women by the National League of Women Voters, an honorary doctorate from Oxford University in 1925, the Henry Draper Medal in 1931, and the Ellen Richards Award in 1932 to create the Annie J. Cannon Astronomy Award. As part of the American Innovation Dollar, the State of Delaware issued a coin in 2019 with the words “ANNIE JUMP CANNON - CLASSIFYING THE STARS - DELAWARE” in his honor.
The struggle for women’s rights will also be strongly influenced by Annie Jump Cannon, who uses the notoriety gained from her exploits in the scientific world. She is fighting for better integration of women in science. She also joined the National Women’s Party and actively advocated for the right to vote for women. This period was marked by a clear shift in the perception of women in the scientific world, and the strong contributions of Annie Jump and her calculator colleagues will serve to shape the world of astronomy as we know it today.
The 21st Century - Modern Astronomy
At the end of the 20th century, scientific fields became increasingly open to women (positions of responsibility in universities, distinctions, conferences, etc.). The important contributions of women but also the injustices observed during the previous century also serve as a driving force for progressive change. For example, The Baltimore Charter for Women in Astronomy was established in 1992 to ensure equal opportunities for women in astronomy.
Some women were distinguished by major contributions. We can quote Carolyn Shoemaker who discovered many comets and asteroids. A graduate of California State University in Chico in history and political science, Shoemaker would later enter astronomy as an assistant to her husband Eugene M. Shoemaker. They discover together, more than 900 asteroids but Carolyn is more interested in comets. It currently holds the record for the largest number of comets discovered by a human being, 32 comets, including Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9. Carolyn continues her research today.
Unlike Carolyn Shoemaker, who has a largely independent career, Jocelyn Bell has distinguished herself not only by her remarkable discoveries but also by her influence in the academic world. A British astrophysicist, Bell began to take an interest in physics at the age of 13 at the Mount School (Boarding School for Girls), influenced by her teacher. She then studied at the University of Glasgow and earned a Ph.D. at the University of Cambridge in 1969. His thesis, supervised by Antony Hewish, focused on the study of quasars (Particularly black holes, very large and located in the center of an extremely bright region).
During her observations, however, she noticed signals that were still unknown and periodic, the source of which would later be identified as a neutron star. Bell had just discovered the first pulsar, but the Nobel Prize was awarded in 1974 to his thesis director Hewish for this discovery. This decision provoked many negative reactions and was controversial at the time, although Bell did not object. She later received other awards and distinctions, including the Herschel Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1989, the Michael Faraday Award of the Royal Society in 2010, the Royal Medal of the Royal Society, the Fundamental Physics Award in 2018, etc... Bell was president of the Royal Astronomical Society from 2002 to 2004 (the second woman to take up the post, the first being Carole Jordan from 1994 to 1996). She is also a member of many other learned societies.
The contributions and distinctions of these women are now being used to inspire others and to open up scientific fields more and more to women while combating gender bias. This is demonstrated by the appointment of Penny Sackett as Chief Scientist of Australia (the first woman to hold this position) and Jill Tarter as Director of the SETI Research Centre, for example.
Maria Korsaga (born in 1984) can be considered today as both a witness and an engine of evolution. Maria is a Beninese astrophysicist and junior member of the International Astronomical Union. In 2012, she obtained a DEA in applied physics at Joseph Ki-Zerbo University in Ouagadougou. She then went to France, to the "Laboratoire d'astrophysique" in Marseille to do a thesis on the distribution of dark matter and light matter in spiral and irregular galaxies, co-guarding with the University of Cape Town in South Africa. In 2018, she became the first woman to hold a Ph.D. in astrophysics in West Africa. She is affiliated with Joseph Ki-Zerbo University in 2022.
Written by Bryne T.
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